1/32 scale animals

Thanks, Rogério. As you know, I didn't start this topic, but when I saw it the first time, and in particular Christophe's figures, I realised that it was worth collecting 1:32 scale animals other than Britains. There are so many great figures to collect. I wonder whether Woodlander is still collecting. Christophe has been quiet lately too.

rogerpgvg wrote:

Thanks, Rogério. As you know, I didn't start this topic, but when I saw it the first time, and in particular Christophe's figures, I realised that it was worth collecting 1:32 scale animals other than Britains. There are so many great figures to collect. I wonder whether Woodlander is still collecting. Christophe has been quiet lately too.

I know but I almost forgot. Woodlander has a residual story on forum and he is not visiting it since January 2018. However, the topic resulted fantastic, especially with your entries. If [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] is still collecting, he is surely missing a lot.
About Christophe I understand, we all miss him on forum, he is a very charismatic collector with an incredible knowledge, a unbeatable sense of humour and he is an excellent Man. He is not having time to his collecting hobby but I am sure he will be back and one of the topics he will enjoy to revisit, will be this one. He was your best partner calculating scales, he is very good doing it but I hope you do not demotivate and that you continue providing us the pleasure of watching your great pictures and reading your observations.

I would love to be more with you my friends and I always hope to be more active soon.

And yes I'm still a collector and this place is still my home

Kikimalou wrote:

I would love to be more with you my friends and I always hope to be more active soon.

And yes I'm still a collector and this place is still my home

Having just a hello is already very conforting! Take care my friend!

Great to hear from you, Christophe. Hope you are well despite not having much time.

Roger wrote:

Kikimalou wrote:

I would love to be more with you my friends and I always hope to be more active soon.

And yes I'm still a collector and this place is still my home

Having just a hello is already very conforting! Take care my friend!

Verry happy to see this Hello

Now for something a bit different: a few farm animals. I normally assume that the Britains farm animals are the right size for 1:32 scale, but are they? Let’s have a look at some of their cattle. First, my favourite Britains cattle, the Herefords. They were released in 1980 and are one of the few Britains animals still for sale.
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The Hereford cows are 4.0/128 cm and the bull is 4.1/131 cm. According to Mason's World Encyclopedia of Livestock, traditional Hereford cows have a withers height of 120 cm and bulls a height of 135 cm. But more recently, larger Herefords have been bred and according to the American Hereford Association, modern bulls can be up to 162 cm (average 140 cm for cows and 152 cm for bulls according to Mason’s).

The Jersey cattle are great too. Britains made several versions of these; this is what they looked like between the mid-1970s and 1983:
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The cow is still the original that I bought in my youth, probably around 1983-84. Unfortunately, I never found the bull and calf back then, but I managed to buy them more recently.
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Modern Jersey cows can have all different sizes (HeritageJersey.org), from 80 to 150 cm withers height, but in the 19th century, the average height at the withers of a mature Jersey cow was 117 cm and bulls were 127 cm. The Britains cow is 4.0/128 cm and the bull is 4.1/131 cm, which corresponds fairly well to the sizes of the traditional Jerseys. As with most Britains cattle, the bull is relatively small compared to the cow.

Finally, the Britains Highland steer, made between 1966 and 1977. Living in Scotland where I see these cattle quite often, I am happy that Britains made one, even though it isn’t perfect. Highland cattle are normally broader and they don’t really raise their head like the Britains steer:
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I think the size may not be quite right either, as Highland cattle are quite small. Wikipedia says that cows typically have a height of 90–106 cm, and bulls of 106–120 cm. Mason’s World Encyclopedia of Livestock says that cows are 106 cm, but doesn’t mention the height of bulls. On the other hand, Highland-cattle.eu says cows range between 110-130 cm and bulls between 120-140 cm, and Cattlenetwork says cows are 115 cm and bulls 128 cm, so perhaps Highland cattle can sometimes be quite large.

Here we have them all together. And if you haven’t seen it yet, Taos recently showed us many more Britains cattle: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
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Sizes are not so far from being correct, I guess! I had no idea Highlands were so small!
I think the Jersey family is my favourite from this batch.

My father grew up with Britains farm life and would only buy the breeds of cows he owned

Britains was great for people interested in farming. Lots of tractors and farm equipment that I loved playing with. Still, they have a reasonable tractor range. Did you father have many cows?

From a distance, Highland cows look large because they are very sturdy, shaggy and have large horns. But when you get closer, you realise they are quite short compared to for example Friesian cows.

Yes, the Britains Jerseys are nice too, even though they are just copies of the Friesians with a different colour.

During my father's childhood and up until 2010 my farm was a very busy place indeed. My grandfather would be up in the Scottish Highlands buying over 300 sheep, my father would also travel up with him and they always seemed to buy around 40 cows too. In 2010 I had 40 geese, 80 chickens, 20 ducks, 30 rabbits, 10 Guinea pigs, 8 border collies, 3 German shepherds, 2 cats, 350 sheep, 50 cows, 5 horses, 2 donkeys, 8 cockatiels, 3 budgies, 70 pigeons, 30 zebra finches, 4 macaws

That's a lot of animals! It must be a great place to grow up.

It can be great working on a farm, but with so many animals it can be a challenge to feed them all (especially at this current time)

Yes, I imagine farming is a complicated job.

A few large-horned animals:
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From left to right: Clairet Barbary sheep, Britains (later) Oxford Down ram, Starlux ibex and Colorata bighorn sheep.

The reason for this post is really the Clairet Barbary sheep. I got it as a freebie from a very kind seller, who included 3 free Clairet figures together with 8 I bought, plus information from a Clairet book that has allowed me to complete the Clairet zoo TAW pages.

At first sight, the Barbary sheep may not seem so special and you can imagine why it was given away for free. But I think this figure (and others that Clairet made) was actually quite revolutionary at the time it was made! It was released in 1952 or ‘53 and one of the first from synthetic material. The cellulose acetate now doesn’t have such a good name because it can disintegrate when it gets old, but the hard material allowed Clairet to give the mouldings incredible detail. This worked particularly well on hairy animals like the Barbary sheep. I counted 9 lines in 5 mm:
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I don’t know whether Clairet was the very first company to use synthetic material for animal figures (probably not), but companies like Starlux and Britains/Herald were slightly later. Their models were also less detailed.

Clairet called its Barbary sheep a “mouflon”, which I suppose is correct because in French, a Barbary sheep is a “mouflon à manchettes” or “mouflon de Barbarie”. It has a shoulder height of 2.2/70 cm. Information about their size on the web varies a lot (between 60 and 125 cm). Females are much smaller than males; I guess the Clairet is female as it has fairly small horns. Rahmouni and colleagues (2018) in the Genetics and Biodiversity Journal measured 24 Barbary sheep from Algeria and 18 from UAE (both males and females). The shoulder height of the Algerian animals was 78-107 cm and those of the UAE 68-99 cm, so it seems like 70 cm is possible though small.

The Britains Oxford Down ram has a shoulder height of 2.5/80 cm. I haven’t been able to find information about the size of this sheep breed, but photos suggest that 80 cm is indeed correct. It is a rare breed, as only 1500/3000 Oxford Down sheep currently exist. Interestingly, I haven’t found any photos of Oxford Down sheep with horns, as they are always polled. Did Britains not know or did they have horns in the past (the Britains ram was issued in 1979, but there is an earlier version from 1956)?

Next, we have the proud Starlux ibex, released in 1960, although this colour version is from after 1970. He wants to have a photo just of himself. OK, then, here you go:
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But not too vain, Mr. Ibex. You can’t deceive us so easily: aren’t you just a small copy of the Elastolin ibex? (Thanks to Susanne for the photo and discovery.)
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Wikipedia says that male ibex commonly grow to a shoulder height of 90 to 101 cm, but females are smaller (73-84 cm) and Siberian ibex can be larger. The Starlux ibex has a height of 3.1/99 cm, so he can be proud to be a large one.

Finally, we have the Colorata bighorn ram from the Palearctic and Nearctic Regions box issued just last year. His shoulder height is 2.7/86 cm. In a research article, Valdez and Krausman (1999) measured male bighorn sheeps as having a shoulder height between 81 and 112 cm, so the Colorata is small, but possible in 1:32 scale.

Clairet has surely wonderful models, they only never achieved a comprehensive range as Starlux and the lack of catalogues also does not help. So, it is wonderful you could sort it on TAW.
Mouflon is correct and you pointed it up. These figures are marketed with their original language and it is a mouflon in French. Starlux's model is also called mouflon.
I have checked some info about the Oxford Down sheep and considering the breeds they crossed, I really doubt these sheep was ever horned.
Maybe Britains was also not immune to the market logics. It is common to see, on toy industry,  rams with horns when it is not supposed. The explanation is simple, kids could never guess it is a ram if it has no horns. There are a few examples among modern companies.
Starlux Ibex is a wonderful piece, we could suggest they were based on a same book gravure but they are too identical to believe it was not copied.
Bighorn is more than good, there is a big variation in sizes among populations. Yours is just a small specimen but a very beautiful model too.
Your collection is very special, at least for me... dot.

Thanks for the positive comment about my collection. I really enjoy collecting in this scale, because it forces me to look for figures from a wide variety of companies, usually figures that aren't from the main modern companies. The harder it is to find something, the more the joy.

We often think of Clairet as the smaller cousin of Starlux, and this was true in later years. But the information I received from the kind Clairet seller has made me realise that Clairet was ahead of Starlux in the 1950s with their zoo animals. The first Clairets were produced in 1952, while Starlux followed in 1953. In 1953, Clairet already had 80 different items in their zoo range (animals, but also scenery and plants), whereas Starlux only had 37. By 1956, Clairet had 100. Many of the early zoo animals that Clairet and Starlux produced were very similar. It isn't entirely clear who copied who, but the fact that the Clairet animals were slightly earlier, the fact that they had a larger range and that their sculpts tended to be better and more detailed suggests that Starlux mostly copied Clairet.

Only when Starlux introduced their second zoo series in 1959, their models became more different from those by Clairet. These new models had a grander style, as can clearly be seen from the ibex (even though that was a copy too). It's easy to see why children would buy the grand Starlux ibex rather than a more modest figure such as the Clairet Barbary sheep.

A few websites that I found mentioned that Oxford Down sheep are always polled, but I think this could also mean that they are naturally hornless; I think you are right and they never had horns. I don't know whether Britains ever listed the original 1956 ram as an Oxford Down. In his Britains farm models book, Barney Brown just refers to it as a "ram". Perhaps the ram and the grey sheep weren't initially intended as Oxford Down sheep. I'll show photos of these when I have some time.

I like comparison photos of the same or related species, but I am away from most of my collection at the moment, so I can’t take very comprehensive comparison pictures. Instead, I’ll show you some animals of the small collection I took with me.

The great thing about a collection in the same scale are in fact the between-species comparisons. Although individual models in 1:32 scale may not always be as good as the more common larger models, together, as a complete display, I believe they are more realistic. Here is what I have on my shelf right now:
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Sorry, you may have to click on it to see the full size and the photo isn’t as sharp as I’d like to have it, as I don’t have a tripod here. It’s a more-or-less random collection, but mainly land-based animals that I collected a while ago, including a few of my favourites.

That's the magic of collecting according with a certain scale. Not merely what looks nicely together but what really gives a realistic approach in terms of relative sizes. Love it!
Thanks also for your considerations about Clairet/Starlux, It is very interesting to me, you also enjoy to study the phenomenon on global terms just as I do.

The last photo is excellent

Wow, beautiful selection of 1:32 scale models you have made Roger
And this photo is wonderful

Thanks a lot! I have uploaded the photo again so that it is slightly larger when you click "full size".

Today a few marine animals I recently collected. First, some easy to find sea life that is still in production. First, the 1997 Safari great white shark. Here it is (left) with the 2018 Schleich great white, one of my first non-Britains animals.
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They are similar in size, but the Schleich is fatter. In 1:32 scale, they are rather large sharks: The Schleich has a fork length of 16/512 cm and the Safari 15.3/490 cm. Natanson (2002; Col.Vol.Sci.Pap.) reported measurements of 112 white sharks, with the largest having a 526 cm fork length, although lengths up to 599 cm have been reported elsewhere (640 cm total length).

I also bought a Mojö Deluxe orca. Nothing special about it, the main reason I bought it is that I wanted an orca that is clearly larger than the great white sharks. The Mojö was the largest I could find. It has a fork length of 23/736 cm. Wikipedia says males are between 600 and 800 cm. Here he is with the new Schleich orca calf (9.3/298 cm), which I also got.
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And here we have the Safari megamouth shark:
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It has a total length of 16.8/538 cm. Watanabe & Papastamatiou (2019; The Fisheries Society of the British Isles) reported historical measurements of 117 megamouths and found that females had a total length of 3.41–7.10 m and males 1.77–5.39 m, so most likely, this is a female. Not the best-looking lady in town, but my favourite, because she looks a bit different and Safari has given her a matt, slightly rough texture which feels quite real. It’s a new species in my 1:32 marine reserve.

Much harder to find (and smaller) are two K&M lemon sharks I got from Yvette (75senta75).
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They are toob-style figures, but each is accompanied by two fish, which I think makes them rather nice. The two sharks are slightly different and one is accompanied by two silver fish (1999) and one by two striped fish (1998). I have no idea what kind of fish they are meant to represent, but hopefully they are 1:32 scale

The shark with striped fish has a total length of 7.2/230 cm and the other one is 7.6/243 cm. Wikipedia says that the lemon shark commonly attains a length of 2.4 to 3.1 m by adulthood, although sexual maturity is attained at 2.24 m in males and 2.4 m in females. I’d like to think of them as a young couple.
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These fish attached to your lemon sharks are remoras. They're surely at a good scale.
It is interesting that you acquired the aged Safari great white shark when you already owned the Schleich rendition. These are two very different models but they look nicely together. They also represent two very different shades, both plausible. I think your choice for Mojö's orca femmale is sensate, it is a great model.

Beautyful warks and shales

The ol Safari Great Wite is something special .
Even if I only have it in a play set, for some strange reason I always liked it very much

rogerpgvg wrote:

.......

We often think of Clairet as the smaller cousin of Starlux, and this was true in later years. But the information I received from the kind Clairet seller has made me realise that Clairet was ahead of Starlux in the 1950s with their zoo animals. The first Clairets were produced in 1952, while Starlux followed in 1953. In 1953, Clairet already had 80 different items in their zoo range (animals, but also scenery and plants), whereas Starlux only had 37. By 1956, Clairet had 100. Many of the early zoo animals that Clairet and Starlux produced were very similar. It isn't entirely clear who copied who, but the fact that the Clairet animals were slightly earlier, the fact that they had a larger range and that their sculpts tended to be better and more detailed suggests that Starlux mostly copied Clairet.

Only when Starlux introduced their second zoo series in 1959, their models became more different from those by Clairet. These new models had a grander style, as can clearly be seen from the ibex (even though that was a copy too). It's easy to see why children would buy the grand Starlux ibex rather than a more modest figure such as the Clairet Barbary sheep.......

EXTREMELY interesting

I always had a problem knowing the early Starlux models from Clairet, - and here is the explanation

Copy, knock-off, "inspiration" , - nothing new under the sun